


THE COVEN OF AETHER

by AdoringDelano



Series: AETHER & CHAOS [1]
Category: RuPaul's Drag Race RPF
Genre: Adore is really gay and confused, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Witchcraft, F/F, Gen, Jinkx just wants to sleep, Katya just wants to hug Trixie and sleep, Multi, Mutant Powers, Nobody makes sense, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, magical beings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-15 12:08:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16062815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdoringDelano/pseuds/AdoringDelano
Summary: In a world once purely magical, contained only the people strong enough to contain it, life was dying. Witches, fairies, angels and demons, were-creatures, all beings imbued with the force of life itself, were collecting together in various places around the world, hidden and masked from the humans destroying their power.Or, Adore Delano regrets following Jinkx Monsoon into the forest because now apparently the weight of the magical world rests on her shoulders.





	THE COVEN OF AETHER

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this is as good as I thought it would be, and I hope you all enjoy it! <3

“I’m sorry, you’re a what-now?”

Adore regretted a lot of things in life, like that one time she told Bianca she reminded her of the lady gremlin from that old movie, but right now she was regretting the fact that for some reason, she’d followed Jinkx Monsoon into a forest in the middle of the night.

Sure, Jinkx was nice, weird, but nice, but not follow-you-into-the-woods-because-I-totally-trust-you-nice. She hardly knew Jinkx. She knew about three things, and one of them was that usually, the redhead looked a little like a human game of pass-the-parcel, that she could hear her singer from her dorm five rooms down, and that she was friendly with Bianca and Courtney.

Jinkx Monsoon seemed completely un-serial-killer-like.

That didn't mean Adore should've followed her into a forest.

But, she had.

And here she was, in the middle of a forest, in the middle of the night, wearing stilettos and a mini skirt. Not exactly the appropriate wear for a midnight hike, though she hadn’t exactly expected to be going on a midnight hike after Shea’s birthday party with Jinkx Monsoon.

“I’m a witch!” The redhead beamed, tossing her curly hair over her shoulder as she stepped over a thick tree root, a tree root Adore promptly tripped over.

“-the fuck?” She blurted, rubbing at her scraped knees and glaring up at Jinkx.

“A witch!” She exclaimed again, offering a hand to Adore.

With a grunt, she stood, still scowling. “A witch.”

“A witch!” Jinkx repeated, beaming brightly.

“A fucking witch. I could be in bed right now, you know that?” Adore grumbled. She didn’t quite know why, but she could almost believe Jinkx. The girl was a wacko, perhaps it was just her vibe or something, but there was something a little off about her.

“I know you don’t believe me at the moment, but you will, I promise.” She hopped over another root.

Jinkx wasn’t dressed appropriately either, though she was somehow managing in her sparkly red wellies and her polka-dot dance dress, knee-length-yellow socks making the outfit a sight for sore eyes, skipping about over roots and lumps in the path that seemed to fall directly in front of Adore’s feet. She beamed again, offering a hand out to lead her forward.

“‘S fine.” She mumbled, pushing her own, dully-dyed green hair out of her eyes. It’d been rather vibrant for a while, but now the colour was starting to fade, she’d need to dye it again.

“I don’t usually do this, but it just happened to be that I was the only one from the coven who was present at the party.” Jinkx hummed, turning a corner into an even darker part of the forest. Adore frowned at the word, ‘coven’, then squinted ahead, pretty much blind in the almost-black night.

“Coven?” She repeated.

"Coven, pride, pack, club, it doesn't really matter, it’s not really a coven though, because we’re not all witches. There’s fae-folk, a couple of vampires and ghosts-and such, a werewolf or three-”

“Werewolf? Werewolf like-the dude in Harry Potter?”

Jinkx squawked. “Not like Harry Potter! God, no, don’t mention that to the other girls! Mundanes always compare us to that hogwash-it’s completely inaccurate, you know? Riding broomsticks is awful for your back!”

“Mundanes?"  
  
"None magical people."

"Like me-"

"Well, obviously not, or else I wouldn't be taking you to the group!" 

"You're crazy."

The redhead squawked again. “Believe me, Courtney’s going to be so pissed you didn’t believe me!” then, “Oh-no-oh-shouldn’t have said that-pretend I didn’t.”

“Courtney’s in on this?”

Courtney as in Courtney Act, the C of ABC, Adore’s best friend, and one of the few people Adore would tell anything to? That Courtney?

Jinkx’s face crumpled in annoyance. “I think she’d rather tell you herself, I’m very sorry.”

“Courtney knows about this?”

“Courtney was one of our founding members. She helped us bring the bond between wolf-kind and fae-folk to an agreement.”

“Huh. Is this a cult? Are you leading me to a cult? Am I a fucking sacrifice?”

Jinkx giggled.

“No, no! That’s not our thing! We’re just...we’re a group, we’re the ones who got left behind, who’re not able to carry out our practices in the normal world, we discovered each other. We look after each other.”

“Why the fuck am I here then?” She glanced up at the stars glittering above, then stared back at the redhead.

“I-well-it’s come to the group’s attention-well-I best show you instead.” Jinkx fumbled over her words, stars lighting her hair a fiery red.

“What does that even mean?” Adore almost yelled, irritation twinging her voice unpleasantly.

“You’ll see.”

“I swear to god if you’re taking me to another fucking paintball ambush, you’ll never see the light of day again-oh.” A soft ‘o’ of surprise escaped her lips.

They’d reached a clearing probably six-by-eight metres wide, above it, a huge, rickety stone bridge Adore was confused she hadn’t seen earlier. The floor around her feet was littered with signs of life, bean bags, empty beer cans, a few blankets and pillows, hammocks hanging from the underside of the bridge.

A rather familiar pink guitar lay underneath the bridge beside a spread of paints and brushes, various items Adore recognised, a pair of pale pink pumps tied with red ribbons, a discarded t-shirt reading: ‘I slept with Alaska and all I got was this lousy shirt’ that’d been sent out last Christmas.

She’d worn hers with glee, ‘til Bianca had taken it away because she needed to ‘wash’ it, though she assumed she just threw it away because it’d started to change colour.

All around them were fairy lights, pinned into the trees, to the hammock ropes, the crannies in the bridge. They made the whole clearing glow a soft-pink-orange, the sunset colours tinting everything.

“Is this fucking Lost Boys?” She blurted.

She’d actually never seen Lost Boys before, but she remembered her mom watching it when she was little, and she was sure it looked a little something like that.

“That was Katya’s idea.”

“Katya’s here?”

"We agreed to meet up a bit later tonight, but usually these girls are early anyway, to double check where the bridge has moved to."

Katya? Early? That didn't sound right.

“Dory!” A familar face appeared from under the bridge. Katya, blonde hair bouncing about her face and blue eyes twinkling. “You came! I was worried Jinkx here wasn’t going to convince you!” She grinned, her red skirt twisting about her thighs. She was wearing her usual, black top, red skirt, red converse, fishnets and an assortment of hand-shaped jewellry hung around her neck.

  
“Convince me of what? What’s fucking happening? Why does that nutcase think she’s a witch?” Adore jabbed a thumb in the direction of Jinkx, who frowned for a split second, before marching under the bridge.

Katya cackled.

“Don’t laugh at me!”

“It’s hard not to-you’re stropping like a toddler!” The blonde snorted.

“Well, you would too-”

“Eh.” Katya shrugged.

“Katya-”

“Adore!” A tall figure emerged from the under the dilapidated bridge, bouncing towards them cheerfully. Pink hair swirled up into a neat bun, loose hair falling down around her freckled face, overly-extreme makeup and an abundance of baby pink, Trixie Mattel thrust her arms out and bear-hugged Adore.

“I-”

“You know, none of us expected this! We thought, maybe Bianca, or Alaska, but not you!” She beamed down, as though Adore was meant to know what that meant.

“Huh?”

“Oh, well, you see, Raja gets these visions, and then she relays them to Kameron, and Kameron paints them up on the walls of the bridge.” Trixie gestured behind her, as though this explained everything.

“Walls? Paint? Visions?” Adore’s brain was throbbing.

“Yeah-Raja and Kameron are part sprite-not the drink-and they’re-like-connected, ‘cause they’re both the same spirit.”

“Spirit? Sprite?”

“Adore-just-well-I-look-” Trixie grasped her arm, and pulled her forward. Adore stumbled over a discarded bottle, shaking the pink-haired girl’s hand and following her toward the bridge.

The bridge itself appeared to be sagging, though the fairy-lights give it a rather etheral glow, Trixie’s pink hair tinged reddish-orange prettily. Katya was just behind them, still beaming slightly disconcertingly.

  
On the other side of the bridge were brightly coloured two walls, leaning against one of them, Raja, her black hair pinned up messily on top of her head, nodding as Jinkx muttered to her, and on the floor on the opposite side of the bridge was Kameron, sat cross-legged with a large paintbrush in her hand. 

Around the two girls lay an assortment of brushes, pads and paper, buckets and paint. Growing around the edges of the walls were huge, vibrant sunflowers, some a mottled golden-brown, others honeyed-yellow.

When they appeared, the auburn-haired girl stumbled to her feet, a flush spreading across her paint-smudged face.

“H-hi.” She mumbled.

“Hello.” Adore stared. She didn’t know Kameron that well, only that the girl was on Courtney’s cheer team, she was one of the best dancers on the squad. She wasn’t much of a talker, nor did she go to the parties Adore was always at.

“Look!” Trixie pointed at the wall Kameron’d been painting.

“Why should I-oh.” She gazed up at the wall.

An entire side of the bridge was taken up by a huge painting, a huge painting of a beautiful woman, sunflowers all pinned into her multi-coloured hair. The woman was distinguishable to Adore, as the face she saw in the mirror every morning, except a thousand times more majestic. Eyes and mouths intertwined in her hair, an extra pair of hands extended elegantly from either side, each holding a ball of god-knows-what.

Things that look almost like fairies from storybooks, except a lot less cute and a hell lot more intimidating, wound their way into her hair and settled about her face, butterflies and bees and huge red flowers she didn’t recognise framed the photo.

At the very bottom, freshly painted words intertwined into her swirling hair.

_One of two has risen, one of two will save, one of two will fall, two of two will love._

The words were the same turquoise on Kameron’s now discarded paintbrush, obviously what she’d been doing as they’d walked under the bridge. The muscular girl was fiddling with her false nails, scuffing her pumps against the floor.

“I-fuck.”

Painting-Adore looked like a goddess. A creature of the night, a beast untamed.

Someone arrived in the clearing behind them, but she couldn't pull her eyes away from Painting-hers vivid green eyes, the ones that seemed to cut directly into her own stare. 

She looked eternal, immortal, everlasting.

She looked alive.


End file.
